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Ericson clan
The Ericsons are one of the wealthiest and most influential clans among merfolk. The name "Ericson" was first adopted by the clan in 904, after the passing of the surname law. It was chosen by Manat Ericson (aka Manat II), the head of the clan's third generation. While the clan remains most closely identified with the company founded by Manat I in 830, from which the bulk of their wealth is derived, and which has always been run by members of the family, other members of the clan have gone on to their own distinguished careers throughout the generations. (While still others have pursued lifestyles that precluded actual careers of any kind.) First Generation The First 50 Merfolk, created in LY 810 by Eric and a team of Sorreters, lived in West Ocean. For the first two decades of their existence, merfolk basically had no homes or buildings of any kind. But in 830, a merman named Manat started a construction company called Hydro Erections. (The name can be taken at face value as meaning "underwater construction," though some merfolk have made a joke out of it, using another meaning for "erection," something mermen don't get the way human men do. Because of their psychology, merfolk generally aren't as easily embarrassed as humans are, and are therefore more prone to this type of joking. It isn't known whether Manat himself had this double entendre in mind when he came up with the name for his company. Either way, it is most common simply to refer to the company by the initials "H.E."- not to be pronounced "he"- or else by the name Hydro.) The first project the company took on was the building of an underwater apartment complex called Manat Arms (a name suggested by Eric himself, who said he had heard from a spirit he knew that it was common on Earth for apartment buildings or inns to include "Arms" in the name, for some historic reason which apparently had to do with illiteracy). After the success of Manat Arms, H.E. went on to construct other types of buildings, both business and residential. Manat Arms itself became a separate business, also run by Manat's family, as some preferred to become lessors rather than work in construction. In time, other apartment complexes were built under the same name, and Manat Arms became a chain. In 832, while both H.E. and Manat Arms were still in their early stages, Manat married his girlfriend, a spirit-talker named Anemone. In 833, merfolk first began to think of the area where H.E.'s buildings were located (about three miles off the coast of Sorret) as a sort of village, which they called Aquaton. Second Generation In 835, Manat and Anemone had a brood of three sons (Boreas, Nathan, and Toller) and three daughters (Europa, Olivia, and Zephyria). In 854, when he was 19 years old, Toller was among a group of merfolk who migrated to First Sea, where they founded the village of New Aquaton. There, Toller opened a new branch of both H.E. and Manat Arms. When Manat retired in 870, he passed executive control of both businesses (in both West Ocean and First Sea) to Toller. Boreas was already head of H.E. (West Ocean), and Nathan was head of Manat Arms (West Ocean). Europa, who had moved to First Sea in 860, became head of Manat Arms (First Sea) in 870. At that time, Toller asked Olivia and Zephyria if either of them had an interest in running H.E. (First Sea), but they both declined. Olivia was a wife and mother who had no time for business, while Zephyria was an adventurer who had no interest in staying in one place for too long. Third Generation Olivia married a merman named Dale in 855, with whom she had a brood of five daughters (Crissy, Imbria, Nubia, Serena, and Trancie) in 858. Toller married a mermaid named Adele in 859, and in 860 they had a brood of two sons (Honal and Manat, the latter having been named after his grandfather) and three daughters (Alonz, Hanna, and Pav). Nathan married a mermaid named Penelope in 865, and in 866 they had a brood of five sons (Kaz, Manuel, Ryo, Shawn, and Wain) and two daughters (Kay and Nautica). Boreas, Europa, and Zephyria never married. In spite of having no children of her own, Zephyria became close to her niece, Pav, who in her teenage years began joining her aunt in some of her adventures. Eventually, Pav became a solo adventurer in her own right. In 881, Europa decided she was tired of working as a lessor, and Toller put his son Manat, who was then 21 years old, in charge of the First Sea branch of Manat Arms. By 890, Manat (who was a warlock) had made a substantial amount of money from patents on spell devices he'd invented, and passed control of Manat Arms to his brother Honal. In that same year, their sister Alonz became a physician. In 895, Toller retired, and named Honal his successor as executive of both companies. In 903, Hanna helped organize the Marine Corps, and became the Brigadier of the First Sea regiment. While the Corps had been on the side of the Protestant Movement during the war, the newly established Second Order integrated the Marine Corps into its military, after the war. Manat, who had been in favor of the Order even before the war, helped facilitate this transition. In the course of the integration, Hanna met an officer in the Navy named Scott Botanical, whom she would later marry (in 908). At that time, Hanna chose to take her husband's surname. Fourth Generation (The following is only a partial list of the marriages and offspring of members of the third generation.) In 887, Honal married a mermaid named Kona, with whom he had brood of two sons (Victor and Larson) and one daughter (Miyuki, aka "Miyu") in 896. In 909, at age 13, Victor became apprenticed to his uncle Manat. In 916, Miyu attended the World Fair in Kurok, where Manat unveiled his latest spell device, aquachairs. It was there that she met an elf named Mia Des'Yoshi, with whom she quickly became friends and soon started a singing duo, Mia & Miyu. All three of Honal and Kona's children graduated from New Aquaton University in 916. While Victor continued with his magical studies and Miyu concentrated on her musical career, Larson went into banking. In 889, while in her final year of studies before becoming a physician, Alonz married a chef named Remington. He came from a wealthy clan, himself, who were mostly known as fishermen (though of course their style of fishing was considerably different from that employed by humans). Their specialty was the catching of squid, which is a species first discovered on The Land by Remington's grandfather, Jax. The business which Jax established went on to become a major supplier of squid and various types of fish not only to merfolk, but also to human vendors and restaurateurs. Remington had no interest in fishing, but his career was related to the family business, as he was most famous for his cooking of squid. In 894, they had a brood of two sons (Reuben and Suffik) and two daughters (Clementine and Overta). In 904, when the surname law was passed, Remington's clan took the name Calamari, which is another word for "squid," from one of the various languages of Earth. Alonz chose to take her husband's name, over the protests of her brother Manat, who thought she and Remington (and their sons) should both take the name Ericson, which Manat had chosen for his clan. (Apparently his giving in on this matter paved the way for him to more easily accept a similar choice by Hanna, when she married Scott Botanical four years later.) Category:People